Till the World Ends
by Nova Forever
Summary: Brittanacon Fic Challenge. Prompt: Santana is a sci-fi novel writer & has to convince lead scientist Brittany that even tho it seems crazy, Santana's last novel can help save the world against the asteroid heading towards Earth.


Till the World Ends

Done as a part of the Brittanacon Fic Prompt Challenge.  
Brittanacon Fic Prompt: Santana is a sci-fi novel writer & has to convince lead scientist Brittany that even tho it seems crazy, Santana's last novel can help save the world against the asteroid heading towards Earth.

Note: Please abandon all trappings of logic because there is no solid science past this point. Science is straight up Adventure Time. Also thanks to killercereal and jennamacaroni for making me sound coherent. 

* * *

_**Before - When hours and minutes didn't matter**_

"The problem is that the sun light reflects only the visual spectrum off the strands and then you are only seeing about 60% of the potential existing object and-"

"Dude."

The small blond girl looked up from where her finger was tracing patterns and diagrams into the sand. In front of her a taller boy awkwardly juggled a toy car, regarding the doodles filling the sandbox.

"Why you speakin', like, crazy or something?"

The blond girl's face fell.

"I am just trying to explain how Rainy manages to be invisible while in plain sight," the girl pouted as she held up her rainbow colored unicorn toy.

All she received in return was a confused expression from her potential playmate.

"Nothin' you say ever makes sense. I just asked if you wanted to play trucks," The boy whined as he kicked some sand back over the drawings and skulked off, leaving the little girl to stare sadly at her invisible spectrum pony toy.

* * *

 _ **7:59am - 24 hours to L.S.D.**_

Blond hair floated up into the air as the woman twirled animatedly on her desk chair. In front of her dozens of computer monitors blinked through images of twinkling stars and galaxies far beyond human reach. This was the life. She would always choose a sea of stars over the annoying crowds of politicians swarming outside her door on any given day.

"Dr. Pierce," a male voice pierced into the calm atmosphere of the room as an accompanying image of a harried Asian man replaced one of the starscape images on a monitor. "We are detecting a significant lag on the NASA network again. You aren't streaming all of our star cams to your office again are you?"

Brittany slammed her feet to the floor and the spinning of the chair skidded to a stop immediately.

"No..." she trailed off guiltily, avoiding the eyes of the man glaring at her from the monitor.

"Dr. Pierce, you know that you can't keep draining our network like this. How are we supposed to be studying that new galaxy if you keep leeching like this?"

"I know, Mike!" Brittany threw her hands up in exasperation. "But it is so boring here in DC. They just want to talk about budgets and expenditures and all I want is to do is marvel at the wonders we have access to here at NASA. I mean. Look at that star! Or that nebula! Or that black hole!"

The blond gestured wildly towards different monitors to point out the little miracles of the night sky, causing Mike to sigh. Dr. Pierce always got so worked up she forgot that others may not be able to follow along.

"Or that rainbow over there!"

Brittany paused. Wait. A what.

"Wait. Why is there a rainbow there?" she muttered as she zoomed in the monitor tracking that quadrant.

"Is it a comet?" Mike questioned as he tried to arc his head, as if he would be able to see whatever Dr. Pierce was staring at so intently.

"We have been tracking all the comets that fly close enough to Earth to be readily visible." Brittany mused. "The public eats that stuff up. This one has closed in so fast that it bypassed all our regular monitoring. It has to be going at least 30,000 miles per hour! And so pretty, too!"

The rainbow colored comet twinkled back at the doctor from her computer monitor.

"I saw it first so I get to name it! This one is going to be called C#-0-255!" Brittany declared, trying to hold in her immense amusement at the name.

"Um." Mike glanced off screen on his monitor. "Should I be writing this down or something?"

"Isn't that a hilarious name? Get it?"

A blank stare looked back at Brittany from her monitor.

"Really?" Brittany sighed out sadly. "Cause the C sharp computer code uses integers from 0 to 255 to code for a rainbow? Nothing? That didn't even deserve a chuckle?"

"Oh. Um. Yeah. C sharp coding. Yeah of course. I knew that."

Brittany waved off Mike with a sigh and continued to evaluate the new comet, directing the satellites to send out an assessment ping.

"It is very odd that a comet was able to gain enough speed to get past our monitoring arrays, especially something of this size. Actually, it is unheard of in all the years of NASA work that I have read about."

"Which is all of them," added Mike.

"Which is all of them, " Brittany confirmed.

A white information box appeared on top of the imagery of the comet and instantly Brittany's heart fell to her stomach.

"Mike. I need you to immediately gather all personnel to the main deck at KSC. Everyone is to redirect their scopes and monitors to quadrant 345b. Immediately."

Mike quickly scrambled to the phone upon hearing the serious tone coming from his blond boss.

"What should I put out the alert regarding, Dr. Pierce?"

"It is not a comet. We have an asteroid one mile in diameter in our field. And it is headed straight for Earth."

* * *

 _ **8:37am - 23 hours and 22 minutes to L.S.D.**_

Errant papers scattered across Brittany's desk as she attempted to shove them and her laptop into her travel bag. The clock was already ticking and she would have to cab it to Dulles as fast as she could to make a red eye to Orlando. Suddenly, her desk phone started flashing red underneath all the papers that had settled on top of it.

All the air escaped Brittany's lungs for what felt like the hundredth time in the past thirty minutes. She brushed the offending papers off her desk phone and took a steadying breath, soothing down her dark blue pantsuit and accompanying NASA lab coat, before tentatively picking up the receiver.

"Hello sir. I am so sorry I didn't call sooner, but I take it someone from Kennedy Space Center called and briefed you?"

"What is done, is done," a man nervously chuckled on the other end the phone. "I was told briefly about the meteor, or whatever it is, but I would really rather hear it from the official NASA Administrator who discovered it."

Brittany straightened to attention at the reminder that she wasn't just a scientist puttering through her lab anymore, but the one in charge of the most important Space Administration in the world.

"Yes, Mr. President. What I had initially assumed was a comet, one I called C-0-255-" she paused for laughter at her name and is met again with disappointing silence, "... actually turned out to be an asteroid. It is a little over a mile in diameter, made up primarily of iron, nickel, and palladium, and is traveling at a speed of approximately 31,000 miles per hour."

"Okay, that literally means nothing to me."

"Right. Um. Well if this was just a comet it would likely melt and burn out upon entering the Earth's atmosphere. Which would be amazing and just make a really pretty light show for everyone to watch from their porches while they kick their feet up with a beer."

"But it is not a comet. It is a meteor or something?"

"An out of control asteroid right now. It will be a meteor once it enters the earth atmosphere, which is due to happen in about-" Brittany glanced quickly at the watch painfully counting hours and minutes on her wrist, "-twenty three hours and nineteen minutes. And since it is made of metal it won't completely melt in the Earth's atmosphere."

The President fell quiet on the other end of the phone line.

"Damage estimate?"

"Considering the size of the asteroid this morning and the speed NASA clocked it at I would say it will hit the Earth with the power of a one million megaton bomb. Everything within two hundred miles will be flattened instantly and the dust that it knocks up will cause an extinction event on scale with what happened to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago..."

At this information the President did the last thing Brittany expected - he laughed.

"Um. Sir?"

"You know, Dr. Pierce," he started with a nervous chuckle. "I read this exact concept in a book the other week."

Brittany let out a breath that ruffled her blond bangs while she mentally went through all the possible books the President could have been reading lately on asteroids.

"I am not sure I know what book you are talking about. And I have read, and written, most of the books on the subject."

"Oh it was a really fun read. It was called 'Till the World Ends.' It has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for the past few months, so my wife harassed me about it until I finally gave it a try. The plotline is nearly identical to what is happening right now. And everything worked out just fine in the end. In fact, I am going to put in a call and I will have the author meet you at Dulles. She can fly with you to KSC. I think she is just who you need to figure out this whole 'world ending' issue."

A solid thud resounded through the phone connection as Brittany's head slumped forward to smack into her desk.

"Sir, with all due respect, I think this is a job best left to professionals and not science fiction authors-"

"My assistant already has her on the line! Get to Dulles airport as soon as possible and she will meet you on the plane. Good luck, Dr. Pierce. The world is depending on you!"

* * *

 _ **10:46am - 21 hours and 14 minutes to L.S.D.**_

Brittany tapped impatiently on the track pad of her laptop as she scrolled through the biography of the writer she was unexpectedly paired up with on the task of stopping world annihilation.

Santana Lopez. Age 29. Author of four different sci-fi novels, the most popular of which was 'Till the World Ends,' a novel about an intrepid female astronaut teaming up with an astrophysicist to stop a meteorite from smashing the world to pieces. No known scientific background - just ridiculous fictional writing credits.

The blond sighed heavily and buried her face in her hands.

"This cannot be my life right now," she moaned.

"Hey on the bright side, you might not have much of a lifetime left."

Brittany whipped her head up to the voice coming from the plane aisle. Standing there was a beautiful dark-skinned brunette in tight black jeans and an even tighter red top. Brittany skimmed over the newcomer until she met a pair of eyes that were smirking playfully back at her.

"The name is Santana Lopez," the brunette said as she held her hand out for the doctor. "That is, if you are done staring. We only have twenty one hours left to save the world and all."

Brittany let out a loud scoff and ignored the author's hand as she slipped into the plane seat next to the blond. There was no way this smart ass was going to add anything to the top scientific team in the nation.

"Look," Brittany said, "The only reason you are here is because the President of the United States ordered it, and for some reason I don't want to lose my job in the last few hours I have left. There is no way the author of second rate sci-fi trash is going to help make the calculations that will keep a giant piece of space rock from destroying the human race."

Santana gave an exaggerated pout.

"Excuse you. I made it onto the New York Times Bestsellers list with that book of sci-fi trash!"

"You were #21 on the list. That is hardly making a splash on the charts."

The brunette cocked her eyebrow and smirked again.

"You googled me."

Brittany rolled her eyes and returned to running calculations on her laptop.

"You googled me, and you ogled me," Santana said as she leaned into Brittany's shoulder.

Red flashed over Brittany's cheeks as she slammed down the lid on her computer.

"Why are you even here!?" squeaked the doctor. "I couldn't even find records of where you attended university. You don't even have a background in any sort of science do you?"

Santana screwed up her face in thought.

"I did take a class on Astronomy in high school."

Brittany stared back at Santana blankly.

"But, full disclosure, that was because I thought I was signing up for an Astrology class. I really just wanted to see if my Scorpio ass would mesh well with the hot, blond Libra cheerleader."

"Fantastic," Brittany deadpanned. "At least you will be able to work out how compatible you are with the several ton piece of iron that is going to crush us in a few hours."

Santana threw her head back in laughter, dark brown hair cascading over her shoulders. Brittany shook her head to quickly clear her thoughts. No. Not now. This lady was a joke. Plus the world was ending in a few hours.

A book slid into her field of vision, blinding her with its garish pulp-style cover.

"I assume you haven't even read my masterpiece, Dr. Pierce." Santana commented as she wiggled the paperback in front of the still blushing blond. "I hear this book is going to save the world."

Brittany tore the offending object out of Santana's hands and gave it a once over.

"There is an astronaut with a space suit that shows off her midriff on this."

"Hot, am I right?"

"And a female scientist in a lab coat with no pants."

"Gotta reel the gay ladies in somehow."

"They are shooting the meteor with a laser gun."

"Okay," Santana conceded. "That part doesn't actually happen in the book. My friend Rachel does all the cover art for my novels and she said that laser guns are far more dramatic. I mean, come on. We all know that laser guns are taking it one step too far."

Brittany leveled her blank stare at the animated author once more.

"Yes. The laser gun was the point where I drew the line, obviously."

"Look, you know what they say. Don't judge a book by its cover."

"I am going to go out on a limb and say that I am very comfortable doing just that in this case," Brittany said as she tossed the tacky book back into the author's lap.

With a flick of her wrist, the book is vaulted back on top of the scientist's laptop.

"Well, you can't use your laptop on the flight so your choices appear to be between reading my lovely, world saving piece of literature, or holding an hour and half long conversation with me," Santana responded with a smirk as she leaned in towards Brittany expectantly.

Brittany snatched up the book once again and opened it wide to block out the laughing brown eyes, but the pages didn't block out the gorgeous tinkling laughter that echoed through the cabin around her.

* * *

 _ **12:41pm - 19 hours and 19 minutes to L.S.D.**_

The book soared through the air, narrowly missing Santana's face, before slamming into the cab window.

"I can't do it," Brittany yelled in frustration. "I physically cannot read any more of that garbage. I don't know why I even humored you enough to try in the first place."

Santana lovingly scooped her mussed book up off the floor with a pout and placed it back in Brittany's travel bag anyway.

"I really don't see how reading about the 'hot' astronaut shoving her tongue down the throat of the 'totally-bangable' scientist is conducive to stopping the meteoric destruction of the planet."

"Ooo did you make it to page 235 where they start going at it on top of the scientist's desk at NASA?" Santana asked eagerly.

Brittany buried her face in her hands.

"God, now I can't get the thought that the President has been reading horrible lesbian sci-fi erotica with his wife out of my mind."

"Oh. I didn't even consider that. Huh."

The unlikely duo rocked back and forth in awkward silence as the car rushed them ever closer to the Kennedy Space Center. Brittany glanced down at the timer on her watch, feeling the decreasing numbers burn into her mind.

"Only 19 hours and 15 minutes until L.S.D.," she mumbled.

"I did not take you for the mind altering substances sort, Dr. Pierce," Santana stated with an arched brow. "Also, the world is potentially ending so maybe you should get your priorities in order."

Brittany groaned and scooted even further away on the backseat of the cab from the offending author.

"L.S.D. - Last Second until Destruction. NASA is all about acronyms to save as much time as possible; although, I suppose their efforts are wasted when it comes to individuals like you."

Santana ignored the end comment and gave a solemn nod.

"Makes sense. This whole experience is trippy as fuck."

The blond glanced at Santana from the corner of her eyes.

"I hope you realize that you are basically just here for a glorified field trip," Brittany grumbled. "You have no qualifications, other than maybe the ability to read the asteroid's star sign and some possibly some weird fetish for spacesuits and lab coats."

Santana turned to openly face the glum scientist. The bright Florida sun streamed in through the windows to reflect off of bright blond hair and catch in the doctor's progressively narrowing eyes. Despite the glaring looks and negative comments that she had been receiving all day, Santana's new partner actually was quite stunning. Or maybe she really did have a thing for lab coats.

"I think maybe you should be more open to ideas that aren't your own. You never know where a helping hand or thought may get you," Santana stated with the customary smirk.

"It got me to Cape Canaveral where an asteroid is going to land directly on top of us in 19 hours."

Santana hummed in response.

"Well at least that is oddly convenient."

* * *

 _ **5:23pm - 14 hours and 36 minutes to L.S.D.**_

Brittany's fingers flew across her keyboard in the KSC data room. Complex calculations scrolled across the screen as a simulation ran displaying the meteor travelling through the atmosphere - pixilated computer designed rockets bouncing harmlessly off of the huge rock - which then slammed into Florida, causing little skulls to pop up all over the screen. The blond groaned in frustration and tossed another paper ball covered in useless numbers at the brunette author spinning on the computer chair next to her.

"The atmosphere isn't even going to be enough to hold back the debris of the asteroid if we hit it directly in space. That creates 1.5 tons of small rocks that could create scatter array impact on Earth. The umbrella effect means nothing!"

"Umbrella what now?" Mike questioned in confusion.

"That is some serious science there," Santana nodded solemnly.

"Um..." Mike murmured as he pointed to Santana. "Does she have the clearance to be in here? Who are you even?"

"Oh, haven't you heard? That's Santana Lopez, the New York Times Bestselling author," Brittany exclaimed sarcastically as she clacked away at her keyboard.

"Oh, haven't you heard? I only made it to number 21," Santana snarked back as she spun away in her chair.

Mike glanced nervously back and forth between the duo and started to back out of the room, away from the awkward tension.

"Okay then. You have this under control then. I guess. Um, I will just go run simulations down the hall then," he said with a wave as he scurried out the door.

Santana straightened her chair out to face Brittany and glanced over at the calculations running across the computer screen.

"I am here whenever you need a consult," Santana said seriously as she leaned further over the scientist's shoulder.

Brittany firmly pushed the other woman back into her chair, avoiding eye contact with the distracting author as much as possible.

"I think I can manage."

"Suit yourself," Santana hummed with a smirk as she returned to her spinning.

Across the computer screen the Eastern seaboard lit up with animated red skulls again.

* * *

 _ **10:45pm - 9 hours and 14 minutes to L.S.D.**_

"You know the really shocking thing here?" Santana pondered aloud as she spun.

"That the world is ending in 9 hours?"

"That I haven't gotten a movie deal on all this yet. This would make a fantastic fucking movie."

* * *

 _ **12:07am - 7 hours and 52 minutes to L.S.D.**_

"I think Michelle Rodriguez should play the astronaut. She has got an ass that won't quit and will totally be able to sell the sex scene on page 235."

* * *

 _ **1:03am - 6 hours and 56 minutes to L.S.D.**_

Another explosion of animated skulls appeared over the computer simulation monitor, which caused Brittany to sadly slam her face into the keyboard. 157 tries. 157 failures.

"Okay," Brittany started with a sigh, "I know I am probably going to regret asking this..."

Santana scooted her chair closer to the other woman.

"Oh really?"

"Don't make this any harder than it already is. What is the genius idea they come up with in your novel that saves the world?" Brittany questioned as she shifted her face across the keyboard to study the brunette.

Santana stared back, excitement evident in her eyes.

"Are you ready for this?" Santana paused dramatically. "They open a portal to the fourth dimension."

Brittany remained still and blank faced on the keyboard.

"You see, it makes total sense. If you have a 2-dimensional object, it casts a 1-dimensional shadow. If you have a 3-dimensional object, it casts a 2-dimensional shadow. So by that logic, if you have a 4-dimensional object, it will cast a 3-dimensional shadow. Create a 3-dimensional shadow and then you will have a portal to the fourth dimension that can swallow up the meteor! It is simple mathematics really," Santana explained excitedly.

The blond stared back unmoving.

"Dear God, we are all going to die."

* * *

 _ **4:52am - 3 hours and 7 minutes to L.S**_ _ **.D.**_

Brittany stumbled through the bathroom door and headed straight to the sink. None of her calculations for how to divert the meteor, or destroy it before impact, were panning out. It seemed like her concepts were about as useful as Santana's ridiculous plot-point of opening up the fourth dimension. With a groan at the thought of the author, Brittany turned on the sink and uselessly splashed cold water on her face in an attempt to wash her mind clean of thoughts of Santana, rainbow colored asteroids, and the world ending.

"So this is where you are off doing your mad science then?" Santana's voice cut through the silence of the bathroom. "Not exactly the backdrop I would have painted the scene with."

Brittany tore down a paper towel from the dispenser and wiped off the water dripping from her face and hands. Sighing, she turned and walked toward the wall, collapsing against it as she slid listlessly to the floor.

"We only have three hours left until show time, so maybe you should be back in there doing whatever it is you do with those numbers that fly across your computer screen," Santana continued.

"Aren't there some spacesuits you should be defiling somewhere?"

"Har har," Santana sarcastically laughed, sliding down the wall next to Brittany. "The whole bit where you make fun of all my ideas as being nonsense is getting old really fast. How would that make you feel if people constantly brushed you off like everything you said was illogical gibberish?"

Brittany sat in silence as Santana's words washed over her, bringing back the feel of sand beneath her fingertips and the ever present heart sinking. She tried to focus on the tiny shifts of the author's arm against her own as they breathed.

"How come you aren't even the slightest bit worried about any of this? Of the world ending?" Brittany asked quietly.

Santana glanced to her side, the tiny, seemingly ever present smirk once more overtaking her face. At this point, Brittany had seen it so much that it seemed familiar, calming even.

"You aren't the only one who did some Google research before we met," Santana said simply. "I learned all about how insanely smart you are on the World Wide Web. The one who invented the first telescope that could see beyond the Hubble. Who pioneered using the echolocation from dolphins to pinpoint exact dimensions of planets. Who discovered a whole new color of the rainbow. The gorgeous genius with eyes as bright as the stars she studies."

Brittany scoffed at Santana's over the top prose despite the blush covering her cheeks.

"No wonder you only made it to number 21 on the list," she mumbled.

Santana laughed her off as always and went to stand. She stretched out her shoulders and turned with an open hand towards Brittany. The blond stared at the offering before tentatively slipping her own hand to meet it, letting the author pull her to her feet.

"You know, all those genius scientists like yourself say that if you walk through a doorway it causes your brain to reboot and start with a nice, blank slate," Santana said softly, hand still holding Brittany's own, keeping her close.

"Great. Well. Doesn't help me much because I think I am just going to live out my final three hours here in this Bathroom of Shame."

"See, that doesn't work for me. I need you to get it together and make the 4th dimension, or whatever you have to do to save this world, 'cause I think that you have plenty of other things to discover and invent, and I think I am gonna make it into the top 15 on the Bestsellers list at the very least if we live through this."

The joke fell flat into the cavernous bathroom. Santana waited for some sort of banter in return from the other woman, or a move to escape from her silly comments, but Brittany seemed content to just stare at where the tips of their shoes nearly met on the tiled floor.

"Okay fine. Santana Lopez to save the day then."

Her tanned fingers reached up and directed Brittany's chin upwards until her eyes were level with Santana's own, leaning in to tip their lips together. Santana swallowed the small gasp from Brittany's mouth and gently pushed further into the kiss. The movement spurred the blond into motion and she deftly pulled Santana's bottom lip between her own, savoring the sensation for a moment.

A precious moment. That was gradually ticking down. To nothing.

Suddenly Santana felt herself stumbling backwards as Brittany pushed the author back.

"I can't believe you just did that when the world is about to end," Brittany yelled as she stormed out of the bathroom door.

"Some people would argue that is a really good time to try and kiss someone they just met!"

"You are impossible!"

"Well, it got you moving, didn't it? You'll thank me when your brain reboots!"

* * *

 _ **5:17am - 2 hours and 42 minutes to L.S.D.**_

Brittany slid back into her seat in front of the main data bank monitors, Santana close on her heels. The blond reached down under the desk, taking out her travel bag and rummaging through it to find an old, worn unicorn toy with rainbow colored hair. She carefully placed the toy next to her monitor.

"I must be going mad to even consider anything you say," Brittany muttered as she scooted her chair to face the computer. "I mean, how would you even get the support to make a dimensional portal?"

Santana returned to spinning playfully in her chair next to the scientist.

"Well, in my book they just used the launch pad for the astronaut's ship since it was already there."

Brittany froze at her keyboard.

"The ship was called the WMHS Pocket Rocket."

"Wait. What?" Brittany exclaimed as she grabs the other woman's shoulders.

"Hey, don't judge my naming conventions. Readers eat this shit up."

"No, not that," Brittany waved off the author as she began typing with renewed vigor. "No one cares about what is in your pockets. But the launch pad... Just one wouldn't be enough power to create a show in three dimensions, or size to stop a mile large meteor, but here at the Space Center we don't have just one launch pad. Between Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island we have three! And they spread out in a big enough triangulation that they would cover the direct landing of the meteor. We just need to amplify the power levels to cause the circuits to arc from launch pad to launch pad and..."

"Good thing I convinced you to walk through a doorway and reboot, huh?" Santana teased with a smirk.

Brittany rolled her eyes as a blush covered her face and her fingers darted across the keys.

* * *

 _ **6:36am - 1 hour and 23 minutes to L.S.D.**_

Green smiley faces lit up the Eastern seaboard across Brittany's computer screens as the simulation showed a large, electrified spherical shadow atop a black portal, swallowing up the meteor as planned. Brittany, Santana, and Mike's jaws all dropped in unison.

"Holy shit, this is actually going to work," Brittany said as they stared at the screen in wonder.

"I'm a fucking genius!" Santana yelled, complete with exuberant fist pump.

Brittany twirled her chair around to face Mike.

"I am going to need all ground crew to report to designated launch areas," Brittany directed to Mike. "We need to get everyone we possibly can working to put in extra power boosters and we only have one hour until L.S.D. Let's go save the world!"

* * *

 _ **7:48am - 0 hours and 11 minutes to L.S.D.**_

Brittany twisted her fingers nervously as the screens on the main NASA control deck flickered between the three launch pads. Electricity jumped from pad to pad on the monitors and seemed to even fill the data room. Santana glanced over at her partner and gave her a gentle nudge.

"Hey, you forgot the last ingredient here," Santana whispered.

Brittany's eyes went wide and Santana could practically see all the equations running double time through her mind to check her calculations.

"It is just to believe," Santana said quietly. "You have to believe in your science. In my fantasy. If you believe in me a little bit, too, I wouldn't say no to that either."

Santana took a side step closer. The electricity that once filled the room now seemed to zip along Brittany's body where it nearly touched the other woman.

"Mostly you just have to believe in yourself, Brittany. You did it. You are _going_ to save the world," Santana granted with a smile.

Brittany's breath caught in her throat.

* * *

 _ **7:58:55am - 0 hours and 5 seconds to L.S.D.**_

Santana's hand bumped lightly against Brittany's. She exhaled. There are worse places to be when you are this close to a mind-altering moment.

* * *

 _ **7:58:59am - 0 hours and 1 second to L.S.D.**_

Brittany's pinky reached out to wrap around Santana's.

* * *

 _ **Afterwards - When hours and minutes matter in a different way**_

Sunlight filtered through the blinds and hit the dark hair spread out on the pillow across from her, causing gleaming white reflections to dance across the deep brown backdrop. Brittany let out a small smile, drawn in by the living artwork of constellations in front of her.

Santana tickled her bare calf under the sheets that wrapped around them with her toe.

"What is that big brain of yours thinking about?" Santana teased as her fingers tripped down Brittany's back.

Brittany hummed contently and arched slightly into Santana's touch, letting the warmth of the sunlight and her girlfriend/hero/pain-in-her-ass seep into her body.

"Is it that you can't believe you aren't the smartest person in the room right now?" Santana joked.

"As if. More like I can't believe we saved the planet because the President reads lesbian porn."

"Excuse you. We prefer the term erotica."

Brittany scoffed and whipped the pillow out from under her head to smack Santana.

"Whatever. I guess it has its uses for planetary defense and all," she admitted with an eye roll.

"You just wait until my next book," Santana commented as she stretched closer to share her pillow with Brittany. "It is definitely going to save lives when the zombie apocalypse happens. Now, if only I could talk Rachel out of the green silhouette cover and title of 'Wicked'..."

"Urgh. Please fire your publicist immediately," Brittany groaned over Santana's inevitable laughter.

Santana's giggles died down and the two stared at each other across Santana's remaining pillow. Chocolate brown eyes twinkled back at her with the lights in her dark sky of hair. This wasn't exactly where Brittany pictured she would be, but it was certainly more interesting than her space filled computer monitors, and a hell of a lot better than being in a giant 200 mile wide crater in the ground.

"Wanna act out page 235 again?" Santana whispered with a smirk.

"Yes please!" Brittany yelped as she shoved the sheet covering them out of the way and made a grab for her woman.


End file.
